There are various modes of communication used today, including telephonic communication, facsimile communication, and electronic communication, as examples. In recent years, electronic communication has become a preferred medium of communication for many businesses and individuals. Electronic communication includes electronic mail, also known as email or e-mail, and instant messaging, as examples. The preference for electronic communication stems from the many advantages that are provided by this mode of communication. People have always wanted to correspond with one another in the fastest way possible. Electronic mail is advantageous over regular mail in this respect as it provides a near instantaneous form of communication. Prior to e-mail, first telegraph, and then later facsimile, provided similar instantaneous forms of communication, but in both cases, the steps leading to sending and then ultimately steps involved in receiving this instant communication were burdensome. By contrast, once means of communication are established, electronic mail or other electronic communications do not provide any additional burdens either for the sender sending the communication or the receiver receiving the communication.
The popularity of electronic communication has led both individuals and businesses to rely heavily on this form of communication. Electronic communication allows people to write back and forth without having to spend much time worrying about how the message actually gets delivered. As technology grows closer and closer to being a common part of daily life, the reliance of both individuals and businesses on this medium of communication is sharply increasing.
One common problem encountered when collaborating with people using electronic mail is keeping the correct (interested) entities (e.g., people, parties, etc.) in the distribution chain for a particular thread of e-mails. As new participants are brought on-board, there is a need to add additional interested entities into the discussion or thread of the e-mail. Similarly, occasionally, an entity is no longer interested, and therefore, there is a need to delete that entity from the distribution chain.
One way to add an entity is to take roundabout steps to make sure the actively shared distribution list associated with the thread has been updated to include the new entity. Today, this is typically accomplished by burdening the existing recipients to receive a resend of the previously delivered e-mail with the additional entity. This effects an implicit change to the active list of participant's, such that the additional entity will implicitly be included in subsequent reply/all or forward/all dialogues among the active participants. In this scenario, it is imperative that the active participants be conscious to use the most recent thread of the e-mail in order to include the new entity. This nuts and bolts approach is very cumbersome and prone to human error and oversight.
Moreover, every time an e-mail arrives in someone's inbox, it generally is assumed to represent meaningful correspondence intended for processing. Thus, all the participants must process the most recent updates in the form of reading each e-mail where an entity is added to the thread. In the scenario in question in which the e-mail was sent for the simple administrative purpose of adding an interested entity, the sent e-mail is very misleading and draws unwarranted attention from an otherwise busy recipient that has already processed the substantive content of the note in a previous delivery of the mail.